Latin America beats up Netherlands

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BANGOR – The bats came alive for Latin American champion Maracaibo, Venezuela Wednesday afternoon.

In a hurry.

The Venezuelans, who scored six runs and hit .271 in their first two Senior League World Series games, erupted for 11 first-inning runs on 10 hits and two walks en route to a 21-0 five-inning victory over Europe-Middle East-Africa titlist Rotterdam, The Netherlands at Mansfield Stadium.

Maracaibo pounded out 20 hits, including five straight to open the game, and 11 of its 12 players had at least one.

“Basically, the guys woke up today,” said Maracaibo manager Gustavo Marcano. “We didn’t hit anything in the two games before today. Today we hit the ball good. We’re trying to get ready for the big game tomorrow [10 a.m. today against 3-0 Freehold Township, N.J., the U.S. East champ].”

Maracaibo improved to 2-1 while Rotterdam fell to 0-3.

Pacing the attack was center fielder-left fielder Carlos Salazar, who tripled, doubled, singled twice and drove in four runs.

“Today, I changed my mind. I tried to focus on driving the ball and getting singles. The last two games, I tried to hit the ball over the fence. So that made the difference today,” said Salazar.

“We’re used to hitting the ball real well. Hopefully, from now on, it’s going to be the same [as today],” added Salazar.

Eudondar Gonazalez had three singles and three RBIs while Victor Galue, Francisco Mendez, Urdaneta and David Rincon had two hits each. Galue and Urdaneta each drove in three runs.

They were also aided by six Dutch errors.

“They hit the ball very well and we played very badly. If we had played well, like we did in the first game [5-2 loss to U.S. Southwest champ San Antonio, Tex.], the game would have been much more exciting,” said Dutch center fielder Ramon Hagendoorn.

Kevin Soto, Rider Gonzalez and Renzo Urdaneta combined on a one-hitter, striking out nine and walking two. Soto went the first three, striking out six and walking two. Gonzalez gave up the hit in the fourth, an infield single to Tim Roodenburg, and Urdaneta struck out the side in the fifth.

Soto had an 11-run lead before he even took the hill.

“It’s real good getting to the mound with confidence [courtesy of the lead],” said Soto. “At the same time it’s bad. You only throw three innings. I wanted to pitch the whole game.”

He said Marcano told him “just to throw fastballs down the middle and then throw a few changeups in my last inning.”

“They threw pretty hard,” said Dutch shortstop Tim Roodenburg.

Rider Gonzalez opened the game with a bunt single and Eudondar Gonzalez grounded a single to left.

Lester Silva followed with a high fly ball that dropped into left center field for an RBI double.

Galue’s bad-hop single off Roodenburg’s chest delivered two more runs.

Salazar doubled and, one out later, Urdaneta’s single and an outfield throwing error produced two more runs.

The Venezuelans scored their final six runs with two outs as Eudondar Gonzalez (two-run single), Galue (RBI single) and Salazar (three-run triple) collected their second hits of the inning.

LATIN AMERICA 21, EMEA 0

Venezuela (2-1) The Netherlands (0-3)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

R. Gonzalez, rf-lf 4 3 1 0 Giezen, rf 1 0

E. Gonzalez, 1b 4 3 3 3 Roza, rf 1 0

J. Gonzalez, 1b 1 0 0 0 Stadthouders, 3b 0

Silva, 2b 3 3 1 1 Roodenburg, ss 2 0 0

Galue, cf 2 2 2 3 Rudolph, c-p 2 0 0

Mendez, rf 2 3 2 0 Wolthuis, 1b-c 1 0 0

Salazar, lf-cf 5 2 4 4 van Elewout, 2b 0 0

Gomez, c 4 1 1 1 van de Wal, 2b 1 0 0

Prado, c 1 0 1 0 van Elk, lf 1 0 0

Urdaneta, 3b-p 3 2 2 3 Vervoorn, lf 1 0

Rincon, ss 3 2 2 1 Hagendoorn, cf 2 0 0

Soto, p-lf 4 0 1 0 Vrolijk, p-1b 1 0 0

Totals 36 21 20 16 Totals 15 0 1 0

Latin America (11)02 08 ? 21

EMEA 000 00 ? 0

E? Roodenburg 3, Giezen, van de Wal, van Elk; LOB? Latin America 6, EMEA 2; 2B? Silva, Salazar, Rincon; 3B? Salazar, Gomez; DP? Latin America 1; SF? Urdaneta, Rincon;

Latin America IP H R ER BB SO

Soto 3 0 0 0 2 6

R. Gonzalez 1 1 0 0 0 0

Urdaneta (W, 1-0) 1 0 0 0 0 3

EMEA IP H R ER BB SO

Vrolijk (L, 0-1) 2/3 8 10 10 2 0

Rudolph 4 1/3 12 11 5 1 0

HBP? Silva by Rudolph); WP? Rudolph 2; PB? Prado; Wolthuis; T? 1:42; ATT? 125 (est.)